The firm’s third ESG report key highlights include launching a Voice of Employee pulse survey tool, extending humanitarian aid in Ukraine, continuing to offset emissions with IndigoAg, and establishing an ESG governance framework

CHICAGO, Oct 30, 2023 — Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII), a premier provider of global leadership advisory and on-demand talent solutions, today released its 2022 ESG Report, outlining its workforce initiatives, environmental impact, governance structures, and integration of ESG across business lines. The firm advanced its ESG journey in 2022 by identifying priority areas to guide its continued efforts including diversity, equity, and inclusion, customer trust, compensation and benefits, employee engagement and management, ESG governance, and data privacy and security.

“We underwent a priorities assessment to better inform our ESG areas of focus, which are centered on our people and clients and aligned with our long-term strategy,” said Tracey Heaton, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Heidrick & Struggles. “These areas are highlighted throughout our ESG report, which is an important channel through which we regularly maintain transparency and accountability with our stakeholders. To bring these efforts to light in the report, we showcased some examples of how we support our clients across the gamut of ESG and shed a spotlight on the contributions made by employees in these areas,” added Heaton.

Key highlights from the 2022 report include:

Our Client Services

• At the board director level, in 2022, 63% of United States placements and 60% of global placements were diverse,¹ exceeding our Board Diversity Pledge
• Across practices, 47% of total United States placements and 46% of total global placements were diverse^1,2
• Our consultants expanded their ESG work in the climate space, helping clients prepare their Boards for the expanding set of requirements they will need to address in the longer term

Our People and Culture

• Women represented 63% of our overall workforce, 64% of new hires, and 64% of promotions for the year
• People of color represented 26% of our U.S. workforce, 33% of our new hires, and 18% of
• our promotions for the year
• We appointed Cecilia Nelson-Hurt as the firm’s first Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer to drive our internal DE&I principles and strategy throughout the organization
• Through our corporate matching program, we raised $164,000 to support the Make a Wish Foundation

Environmental Sustainability

• We offset 2,000 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions though our partnership with IndigoAg.
• We reduced our electricity usage by 22% in 2022 compared to 2021, and of our globally leased offices, 60% were sustainably certified
• We are actively working toward setting emissions reduction targets through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which we intend to submit in 2024

Corporate Governance

• Our board received quarterly updates on our overall ESG program, including climate strategy and DE&I initiatives and related public disclosures
• We launched an ESG governance framework to ensure implementation and effectively track the progress of our ESG programs and overall performance including oversight by senior management and the Board of Directors

About Heidrick & Struggles
Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII) is a premier provider of global leadership advisory and on-demand talent solutions, serving the senior-level talent and consulting needs of the world's top organizations. In our role as trusted leadership advisors, we partner with our clients to develop future-ready leaders and organizations, bringing together our services and offerings in executive search, diversity and inclusion, leadership assessment and development, organization and team acceleration, culture shaping and on-demand, independent talent solutions. Heidrick & Struggles pioneered the profession of executive search more than 65 years ago. Today, the firm provides integrated talent and human capital solutions to help our clients change the world, one leadership team at a time.® www.heidrick.com

Media Contact

Bianca Wilson
Director, Public Relations, Americas
Heidrick & Struggles
bwilson@heidrick.com

¹ Global diverse placement figures include women globally and ethnic diversity for women and men in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, where we currently track ethnicity.
​² Excludes temporary employees deployed to clients in our on-demand talent business.